After a few months off

After a few months off of not turning a crank on any of my bikes, today I finally  got out. Have to say in my old age becoming a "fair weather rider" is becoming more an more tempting, man it was cold this morning. Of course I prepared for the elements, however I think I over did it as once I got going with my pal John, it was a case of "Omg I'm Melting".

Lifting my bike over the gate at The Farmers trail

John on His Cube

My dear old dad, or "The Ern" as I lovingly call him had treat me to a new pair of Seal Skin gloves and also a pair of Grab Grip thermal/waterproof leg warmers. Talking about the leg warmers it always annoys me that I have to buy the pair when I only actually use one. My poor old stump, contained in it's silcone liner and surrounded by my socket just has to freeze. Upon each of my adventurers in the chilly weather it is blue upon my return and appears to take ages to heat up.
 
I had discusssed with John earlier in the week about heading out, saying I didn't have plans for an epic ride as I am just so unconditioned. Once more I find myself in the position of just getting out and starting from scratch then gradually building up my fitness, main thing is I am back in the saddle and enjoying some fresh air.
 

"Oh Farmer Trail I have missed you so". Yeah that is the way we headed. It was a combination of real thick mud and ground frost. The large puddles we encountered were glazed over with a sheet of ice. I love the sound of my tires crunching the ice, it is very satisfying to me. Pedaling up the Farmers Trail it felt like my lungs were on fire and ffs why did I put all these layers on along with my Primaloft Jacket oh and Race Face Nano to top it off.

Our plans were to head into Beamish woods and just have a little play around. Jeez once in the woods I swear some of the mudded areas were waist deep. I had taken my Silverback Synergy Fat and John was on his new Cube Nutrail Fat. 

BTK Crossover

Checking out the GoPro on my Mobile phone

Setting up the camera

I have to say I am not to enamoured with the Maxxis Mammoths I have fitted, where as John's Schwalbe Jumbo Jims appeared to be cpoping much better in the thick gloop. John made a lovely comment at one point as we were both struggling to cope with the trail and thick mud, saying "your balance is a lot better than mine". I explained I had to practice a lot, as if I goto fall off on my right side, well that is it I just go. No stopping me as I am clipped in and cannot get my BTK Crossover down quick enough.
 

Messing around with photo's

Every now and then when we came to a nice spot John and I grabbed a photo oportunity. Have to say not to impressed with the quality of the shots today, whilst using both my little Lumix and GoPro Hero 5. Not sure if it was because it was very cold and foggy in places or if I had the settings on manual and messed up. It was also pretty dark in areas and as the GoPro has no flash, well it tends to over compensate in other areas. I am really fancying a new GoPro Hero 7 as heard good reports, it's just they bring a new one out every year and well they are canny expensive. I'll have a fiddle with my 5 as it is still going strong, just ordered some new batteries as my old ones are not holding there charge. £20 for three plus a charger from Amazon, so not too bad.

John looks even more Gimpy than me in this shot, what the hells going on with your ankle dude?

Caked and no grip

Far better dealing with the mud the Schwalbe Jumbo Jims

John

 All in all a very enjoyable ride out, well when I say ride I also did a fair bit of pushing as I was knackered on the hills and if you know the Stanley area, you will know we have plenty of them.

Messing around

John and I

I rode the same way home, this time coming down the Farmers Trail, just as I got to the gate at the end of the trail and dismounted my bike, my good foot slipped down the side of the path way, as it was so muddy. There was this huge puddle, more like the size of a small pond actually. I couldn't un clip my BTK  and I toppled over going sploosh straight in this freezing cold puddle with bits of ice floating in it. I rode home as quick as I could through the estate and when I got home Ern helped me with my soaking wet things and in evacuating all the water which had filled up my prosthetic foot. Everything is now in the wash and I have had a lovely bath, putting in some Epsom Salts as I was Baltic.

The joys of cycling... Much better than sitting in the house, although I am proper tired I feel better about myself. That little bit exercise really does get the old endorphins going and helps you feel positive. I love the outdoors and taking in all the wonderful sights and colours particularly at this time of year. The fallen leaves strewn along some of the trails in the forest were beautiful. And the Coot Pond looked amazing as ice had formed and was glistening in the sunshine. Even met some friendly walkers and had a bit of a chit chat.

Johns bike over at the Coot pond

The pond looked amazing with the bits of ice and sunshine

OK

Ok off to get food...

Sitting on the fence...do I or don't I

My last post, looking back was the 5th of October 2018, this is due to the fact my immune system has been under attack yet again and I have been feeling quite unwell. More anti-biotics, this time for a terrible chest infection that has had me out of action for going on 6 weeks.

Anyhoo not hear to bore you with my tales of woe. Nope I am here to let you know about why I have been sitting on the fence, with regards getting a new bike.

Specialized Turbo Levo Carbon Comp XL 2019

Treating The VW Bug

My Volkswagen Beetle GSR, affectionately known as "Grandma", as well she is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing has been away getting some tasteful and more grunt modifications. The work was carried out over at BTG Performance and I have to say they have done a cracking job.

These guys come highly recommended

As anyone in the VW scene will know the Bug's come from the factory looking rather like they are prepped for some 4x4'ing as they do sit rather high. 

This is how the car sat when I bought her

And how she is now sitting

Upon buying my car back in April the then owner, William mentioned if he had hung on to his car, the next mod would have been some H&R lowering springs. Well I decided to go one step further and get "Grandma" sorted on a set of KW Variant 2 Coilovers. I chose this route as it then gave me the option to tune the ride height and quality a little more than just slamming the car and it being stuck there.

KW Variant 2's

Originally I had wanted to put my car on an Air-ride system, however as I only work part time and I am not exactly made of money a £4000 to £5000 price tag was just a bit too much for me.

As for the coil-over set up the car feels and drives awesome, BTG Performance having fitted the new suspension, then carried out Hunter wheel alignment. Jordan from BTG Performance did let me know that there was a slight scrub on the rear arches, when accelerating or going into corners hard. This is due to the rear wheels being huge for the car. They are 20 x 10's, where as standard rims for this vehicle would normally be 19 x 8.5's. Upon the drive home I did hear some minor rubbing, so my plan is to see how I get on with the car and worst case scenario I will have to head out and buy a new set of wheels and tyres. I suppose some people may look at that as a huge negative, however there is also some positives in that smaller rims and tyres would allow me to lower the car a little more and get and even more aggressive stance, plus the rims I am looking at are performance based, so are a lot lighter.

These are the rims I think I would go for, what do you think?
 

RV019 Wheelset 19 x 8.5, 5 x 108, ET45, 63.4mm CB
  

Mmmmm whether to change rims or not???

Now to more power. BTG are a dealer for REVO. My car as I understand it was a development vehicle for the first Stage 1 mapping of a Beetle. So when I asked BTG to remap my car to a stage 2, alongside a stage 2 DSG map they were only to happy. Of course when carrying out these mods, it is also recommended that a few exhaust mods are done. I already had a Miltek Cat back exhaust and asked BTG could they marry up a Revo front pipe with a 200 cell race cat. "No Problem" was the reply. However upon fitting the front pipe there was one small problem and this was to do with the flange, where the pipe fits the turbo. Again BTG were excellent keeping me in the loop and informing me they had sent my front pipe off to The Exhaust Doctor. This is a well established place over in Shiremoor. A bit of fettling and the exhaust came back and was ready to pop on my car.

Next step was to get my Bug on the rolling road and dyno test it to see how much extra power the stage 2 remap could achieve. The car was pushing out 264.1 HP and 417.5 N.m of torque. This was with a stage 1 Revo remap, a Revo Induction kit and a Miltek Cat back exhaust. With the new front pipe and a Stage 2 remap of engine and DSG my car is now pushing out 290.6 Hp and 437.5 N.m of torque. 

 

Stage1

Stage 2

I didn't really get a chance to have a proper blast in the car on the way home, but man you can certainly feel the difference. This car is so addictive to drive. It can be driven as a daily driver and acts quite sensible (although the un-resonated exhaust does drone a bit), however if you stomp on the gas, she turns in to a complete hooligan and the power delivery can be brutal.

All in all very happy with my desired tweaks and very happy with BTG Performances work.

My aim is to now use the car for a little while and see if once the coil overs settle the rubbing issue stays the same or gets worse. If so I will invest in new wheels if not I think a Big Brake kit is on the agenda. I am also in the process of trying to track down someone to supply a Larger Intercooler. From there possibly looking at a Larger KO4 Turbo and a front active Limited Slip Diff.



From what I have read the Beetle is going out of production next year so hopefully I may have a future classic...